A/N: Elliot and Olivia
have left SVU and gotten married. Two new detectives have been
brought in and life continues.

Sophia Parker is 28 and
she has been a detective for a year and a half before she transferred
to SVU. Before that she was in robbery at the 1-9. She has green
eyes and wavy light brown hair with red highlights. As a child,
Sophia witnessed her mother murdering her baby brother. She has an
older sister Pam who took care of her after her mother was put in
jail. Her sister is 37 and married to Alexander Meredith and they
have a 6 year old son Michael.

Jeffrey Doyle is a 33
year old detective who transferred from Bronx homicide. He was
married but has been divorced for two years. His ex-wife was a drug
addict and abusive towards Jeffrey and their two children. Jeffrey
has full custody of his 9 year old son Patrick and 4 year old
daughter Amy.

The New Kids in the
Squad Room

Sophia Parker walked
into the new squad room. It was her first day in SVU and she wasn't
off to the best start. She was fifteen minutes late but she had a
good excuse. At least she hoped she did.

She hurriedly made her
way towards what she suspect was the Captains office. She crashed
through the door rather unceremoniously and came face to face with
Captain Donald Cragen.

"You must be
Detective Parker," Cragen said. It wasn't a question, it was
more of a statement but the way that he said it put Sophia at ease.

'Maybe you haven't
completely blown it' she allowed herself to think.

"Yes Sir," she said
in a more calm and steady voice then before.

"You're late
detective," Cragen stated.

"Yes Sir," she
replied. Even though she was sure she was about to be reprimanded,
her voice still held it's calmness "I missed the bus," she
explained.

"It isn't exactly a
good first impression to be late on your first day," Cragen said in
a non-threatening voice.

"I know Sir, I'm
sorry Sir. I take full responsibility for my actions," she
responded.

Cragen smiled "That's
fine detective. Don't feel too bad, your new partner isn't here
yet and I suspect that he will be significantly later then you."

Sophia sighed. Her new
Captain seemed to be quite interesting to say the least "My new
partner?" she asked, she new absolutely nothing about her new
partner except that she would be getting one.

"Yes," Cragen said
"Detective Jeffrey Doyle. He called earlier to say that his
daughter was sick and he had to find a baby sitter on short notice
and that he might not be in until the afternoon."

Sophia must have had a
confused expression on her face because Cragen asked her "How much
do you know about your new partner."

"Not a whole lot
Sir," she responded honestly "I just knew that I would be getting
one."

Cragen scratched his
head "Hmm, you would think that people would communicate in this
business," he mumbled "So your old C.O. gave you no info about
your new partner? Not even his name?"

Sophia shook her head
"Sir. If you don't mind, I'd like to get to work. Could you
please tell me witch desk is mine?"

Cragen nodded and
pointed to the desk that had once been occupied by Olivia Benson
"Your predecessor left plenty of paperwork to be done," he said
"You can learn while you wait for your partner."

Confused as to what the
Captain meant by "learn" Sophia turned and left the office.

As he watched her go,
Donald Cragen couldn't help thinking how different than Olivia this
new detective seemed to be. Olivia wasn't late on her first day
and those times that she was late, Olivia had been defiant, not
apologetic, if Olivia had missed the bus, she would say that the dam
bus was on time for once and dam New York City. Cragen wondered how
this submissive wisp of a detective was ever going to make it in SVU.
He hoped that maybe her partner would turn out to be more promising.

Sophia sat down at her
new desk and stared at the grain of the wood. She heard two other
detectives talking but she didn't look up or make any effort to
join the conversation.

"So," one of them
was saying "did you see Elliot and Olivia this weekend?"

"Yeah," the other
one responded "nice new house and all. They seem happy."

"I hope it lasts,"
said the first one "hopefully Elliot has better luck than I do with
wives."

"Everyone has better
luck than you," the second one quipped.

"It's gonna be
weird not having them around," the first one stated.

Sophia dared to glance
up at the other two detectives at that moment. She saw that the
first one was a tall skinny older looking man with smoky glasses.
The second one was a black man with a pony tale. She had no idea
what they were talking about and she quickly looked back down at the
desk to avoid making eye contact.

"Yeah it is," the
one with the pony tale was lamenting "but at least they'te
happy."

"Them, who cares
about them," the one with the glasses said in a sarcastic tone
"They're happy but we get stuck with two green detectives who we
have to break in. How can they do this to us."

Sophia wanted to shrink
into her chair and become invisible. She hadn't remembered feeling
this self conscious and unsure about anything since high school. She
was wondering if this was such a good idea to have transferred. She
was happy in robbery, she had a great partner, she had great
colleagues, she was the rising star of the squad and now it was back
to being the little fish in the enormous ocean.

She started randomly
pulling open the drawers of the desk, searching for something to keep
her mind busy. The drawers were mostly empty but in the bottom
drawer she found an envelope.

She took it out and
examined it. It was open and there was a letter inside. Her
curiosity overcame her and she removed it from the envelope. It was
addressed to her and she began to read it.

Dear Detective Sophia
Parker,

I've heard you'd be
getting my old desk so I told the Captain that I would be leaving you
a letter. I am the one who sat here for eight years before you came
along and you will probably have a hard time for a while because of
that. These people knew me and worked with me and now they will need
to learn how to work with you.

They will probably
compare your actions to mine for a long time. Please don't let it
discourage you. I have known these people long enough to tell you
that they are good people and they will give you a fair chance, even
if it doesn't seem like it at first.

I have just a few
things to warn you about and. Be ware of the conspiracy theories of
one Detective John Munch. (tell him I said that) Also, bring your
own coffee to work (you'll thank me for this suggestion, trust me)

Oh and one last thing
that my partner, oops I mean my husband wants me to tell you. He
says "Tell her not to fall in love with her partner. That only
leads to trouble"

He's such a goof.
Anyway if you do fall in love with your partner, my advice is to not
keep those feelings inside. You don't know how much you could be
missing.

Sincerely,

Detective Olivia Benson

Sophia smiled as she
refolded the letter and placed it back in the envelope. She
carefully put the envelope securely in the top drawer of the desk.

She rose and made her
way towards the other two detectives who were still deep in
conversation. She approached the skinny one and extended her hand.

"Hello. I'm
Detective Sophia Parker. Pleased to meet you detectives," she said
as she grinned broadly.

TBC

A/N: Please tell me
what you think. Next chapter we'll get to meet Jeffrey Doyle.

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